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Eeply to Dr. Bergroth's „INote 011 Mr. Kirby's recent paper 011 the of Ceylon". By W. F. Rirby, F. L. S., F. E. S., etc. etc. My attention has just been called to Dr. Bergroth's article in the Wiener Entomologische Zeitung, vol. XI, pag. 225, 226 (Sept. 1892), and although I greatly dislike the waste of time involved in controversy, I cannot leave the present attack unnoticed, lest my silence should be miseonstrued. I have pro- bably seen much. more bad entomological work than Dr. Berg- roth, but should be sorry for my own sake to treateven the worst oif'enders with such diseourtesy. • The forefront of my offending appears to be that I have overrated Walker and underrated S t ä 1, and especially that I did not follow the System of the latter in my paper. Had I been writing a monographic revision, or a systematic Catalogue of a group, I should of course have utilised Stal's system to a greater or less extent, but I do not find that the multiplica- tion of genera and families is any advantage in dealing with a limited fauna. The species is the unit of Entomology, not the genus. In working out the Cinghalese Hemiptera I might indeed have attempted to refer every species to the exact sub- division proposed by Stal, but I should have run a much greater risk of some of them being misinterpreted or overlooked, than by adopting a simpler arrangement, and placing them under more comprehensive genera. . It was of Stäl's own genera that I spoke as requiring a thorough and mueh-needed revision. Stal's synopses of the genera of various families. of often consist merely of more or less elaborate tables. He did not live to revise the whole of these himself, and some of his genera were never fully Wiener Entomologische Zeitung, XI. Jahrg., 10. Heft (25. December 1802). download unter www.biologiezentrum.at 302 ' W. F. Kirby: characterised, nor even the types indicated. Had he lived longer, he might have partially remedied this; but we must take his work as he left it. I nrast now go fully into the question of the relative value of the work of "Walker and Stäl, as it is one of vital importance to all Entomologists. Walker's work is very unequal, but it is wholly undeserving of the sweeping condem- nation passed upon it by Stä 1. I admit that much of Walk er's work was very indifferent, but many of his errors arose from his describing insects under wrong genera, and a large propor- tion of his species, like those of others authors, can easily be identified by his descriptions, when the actual species are received from the actual. localities. I am con- vinced that when an Entomologist fails to recognise a described species, it is often because he attempts to apply the description to an allied species from another locality. If a species is de- scribed under a wrong genus, the error can easily be rectified, and the assigned to a better position, or sunk as a synonym. No serious härm is done, but Stal's work is far more misleading, for he constantly and recklessly misrepre- sents the work of his predecessors. I could prove this up to the hilt, but will confine myself tö two glaring instances. Stäl (Hemiptera Africana IV, pag. 35) sinks aurora Walk, as a synonym of Tibicen (Quintilia) catena Fabr. and redescribes the insect as new on the same page as T. (Qu.) sanguinarius, which latter name is retained by Dr. Karsch (Berl. Ent. Zeitscbr. XXXV, pag. 120), though he prudently, refrains from copying Stal's synonymy of T. (Qu.) catena. Again, Stäl described a species under the name of Platy- pleura Afzelii, in 1854, but in 1866 he described a species as Plat. strumosa Fabr., quoting as synonyms P. Afzelii Stäl and Oxypleura contracta Walk. In 1881 Distant described a species under the name of P. aerea, in which he afterwards recognised St äl's strumosa, and figured it under that name in 1883, while in 1890 Karsch described and figured an insect as P. limpida, which appears to be identical with Walk er's Ox. contracta. But in 1869 Stäl described yet another species as the true P. strumosa Fabr. without anything beyond a casual reference to P. Afzelii, to show that he now considered it distinct from that insect. S t ä l's three descriptions of P. Afzelii, and P. strumosa, download unter www.biologiezentrum.at

Eeply to Dr. Bergrotli etc. 303 are not only-at variance with each other, but even the dimen- sions differ in each. case, proving that they were drawn up frora three different specimens, if not from three distinct species. Stal's last P. strumosa, of 18G9 seems to be a species closely allied to Oxypleura Polydorus "Walk. St AI describes it at some length, but not a word is said as to whether the lateral angles of the thorax are tipped with brown, or not. Although this is perhaps unimportant in itself, it happens to be a point expressly mentioned by Fabricius in his somewhat brief description of the original insect. Whatever the true P. strumosa, may be (and I think that theFabrician description cannot apply to P. Afzrtii nor to P. aerea), I am not prepared to admit that a man whose own work has been proved to be so misleading as that of Stal, had any right to demand that Walker's work should be declared to be nonexistent; or has any claim to be regarded as a specially trustworthy authority by "com- petent Hemipterists" as one of them (?) lately put it. Many of Stal's descriptions of species are much worse than the average of Walker's, sometimes cosisting only of two or three lines, and quite unrecognisable; nor do I always find his longer descriptions sufficiently definite to allow his species to be readily identified. Stal's descriptions are constantly quoted with doubt by Entomologists who have not examined histypes; and in the case of so unreliable an author, I should not be inclined to attach too much authority even to these. , Dr. Bergroth makes another general statement, viz that many of my species are "placed in wrong (sometimes ex- clusively American) genera". I presume he means genera as restricted by Stäl; but he specifies no instances, and offers no evidence to show that Stal was correct^in his use of the ge- neric names in question whatever they may have been. "^Vhile blaming me for placing Cinghalese species in (alle- ged) American genera, Dr. Bergroth, rather inconsequently, finds fault with me for not having recognised that my Cin- ghalese genus Formicoris was identical with Stal's Cafirarian genus Dulichius. Let him prove this by figuring Stal's insect. I figured nearly all my new genera and a large proportion of my new species; and it is absurd to say that they "will ever remain enigmas till they have been examined by an Hemi- pterist". On his own showing Dr. Bergroth has already suc- Wiener Entomologieche Zeitung, XI. Jahrg., 10. Heft (25. December 1892). 23* download unter www.biologiezentrum.at 304 W. F. Kirby: ceeded in recognising some of them, and I confident.ly venture to prediet that any Hemipterist who takes the trouble to com- pare my paper with a Cinghalese collection, will easily be able to identify any of my new species it may contain. Whether my genus Bicephalus is synonymous with Heni- cocephalus Westw. or not, I do not see that I was greatly in error in referring it provisionally to the Reduviidae. I will not lengthen my present rejoinder by discussing Karsch's strictures on my writings on Odonata, to which Bergroth has gone out of his way to allude; but I certainly think that Kar seh would not be so unfair as to deny that he has found them very useful, although he has neglected to lpok fov-Lepthemis BlackburniMc. Lachl. and ΛίβοΤιηα viridis Eversm. in the index to my Catalogue of Odonata, and has therefore charged me with omitting them. The former will be found under Orthetrum, pag. 36, n. 16 (the only error being that (Lepth. B.) in brackets, should have followed the name); and the latter under JEschna, App. pag. 185, n. 39. Finally Bergroth asserts that "Distant has shown that the four new Cicadae described by Mr. Kirby are all synonymous with known species". Distant's table is as follows: Dundubia mixta Kirb. = Cicada viridis Fabr Pomponia Greeni Kirb. = Pomp. Rnnsonneti Dist. Pomp, elegans Kirb. = Terpnosia Psecas Walk. Cicada apicalis Kirb. = Tibicen nubifurca Walk. No explanation is offered by Mr. Distant, except that the various synonymic notes in his paper "have been rendered ne- cessary by hasty and perfunetory work"; whose we shall pre- sently see. And yet Bergroth considers the case proved! Certainly no one eise would make a secondhand charge of whole sale curelessness without having verified it for himself. I did not reply to Distant's observations before, partly because I hoped to . obtain additional mat«rial from Ceylon, and partly. because I waited to see the concluding parts of his Monograph of Oriental . At present the real facts stand thus: . , ..-·,.. . Dundubia mixta Kirb. The inseet which Stal (rightly or wrongly) identifies with Cicada viridis Fabr. is undoubtedly identical with C. bimaculata Oliv. ,(= C. atrovirens Gruor.) a Javanese species well figured download unter www.biologiezentrum.at ßeply to Dr. Bergroth etc. 305 by St oll (Cigales pl. XXIV, f. 132). I have now both sexes of my D. mixta before me, and although it proves not to be a true Dundubia, and will probably fall into some genus allied to Gicada, it is a much larger and darker insect than G. bimaculata (in fact hardly congeneric) and could not possibly be confounded with it, if compared.

Pomponia Greeni Kirb. Since I wrote my description, tlie figure of P. Ransonneti, Las been published, and I think the two insects are really iden- tical. But I failed to recognize it from Mr. Distant's descrip- tion, especially as the expanse of the tegmina was misprinted 95 millim. instead of 59, in his Monograph. Pomponia elegans Kirb. The type of Terpnosia Psecas Walk., is a feraale from Java, which differs considerably from P. elegans, of which I have only seen males. No further light has been thrown on this question by the notice of the species in Distant's Mono- graph. He simply quotes Walker's description of T. Psecas, and figures an insect from Sikkim as the male. The latter has a comparatively short abdomen, whereas T. elegans like the other Cinghalese species, T. stipata Walk., has an unusually long one, at least in the male. Cicada apicalis Kirb. Walker's Gicada nubifurca may be a small pale speci- men of this insect, but I do not think the . question can be decided until a larger series of these forms is received from Ceylon. If however my insect proves to be congeneric with G. apicnlis Germ, as Distant makes it, its name will require to be changed. So much for the present as regards Distant's identifications of my Cicadae! '• I think I have now noticed everything tangible in Berg- roth VNote". It will be observed that it is simply an unpro- voked personal attack, and consists merely of assertions un- supported by either evidence or argnment. As he has chosen to print it in English, I have replied to him in the same language.

Wiener Entomologieche Zeitung, XI. Jalirg., 10. Heft (26. December 18Ö2).